Tag: Tom Gordon
DL Endorsement for New Castle County Executive
Sometimes voting is an exercise in prevention, as in preventing someone from gaining office; or rejection, in rejecting a failed incumbent. You are not necessarily voting for an alternative, but against a failure. Other times, and hopefully more often than not, you are voting for the best candidate for the job. And sometimes, you can do both. And Democrats can do both on September 13 in voting for Matthew Meyer, and against Tom Gordon, for County Executive.
And doing both is necessary to save our state and county Democratic Party. Delaware, right now, is a one party state. Especially in New Castle County, which is more Democratic than Sussex County is Republican. The danger of one party states, or one party counties, is that they tend to become corrupt and abusive. And that is when the one party of the one party state collapses, either through the weight of its own corruption, or because outside forces have become strong and popular enough to depose him.
Twice now, Tom Gordon is the leading indicator of that trend. You would have thought we would have learned our lesson the first time. He previously served two terms, from 1997 until 2004, until he was forced out during a federal corruption investigation during his second term. Gordon and his chief administrative officer, Sherry Freebery, were indicted and accused of engaging in a criminal enterprise that included using county police officers to campaign for candidates of their liking. Further, Freebery was accused of accepting a “loan” of more than $2 million from a county landowner who needed county approval for a golf course project. It was also alleged that the county settled a sexual harassment lawsuit to avoid public disclosure of a sex scandal that included intimate relations between Gordon and Freebery. Gordon and Freebery had been charged with racketeering, wire fraud and mail fraud.
In the end, however, the prosecutions failed to eradicate the cancer that was and is Gordon. Freebery admitted to lying on a bank loan, a felony, and Gordon pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors for failing to provide accurate tax information for two employees who performed political work on county time. And Gordon found his way back into county government by defeating an ethically challenged Paul Clark in 2012. County voters took a chance that Gordon had changed and learned his lesson. They took a chance that he would bring back the roaring 90’s without the corrupt taint.
They were wrong.
Matt Meyer Polls the NCCo Executive Race
He had a poll done by Public Policy Polling and the result (as reported in the NJ) is at Gordon 33%, Meyer at 30%, Undecided at 38? This is a statistical tie.
More Shenanigans in Tom Gordon’s NCCo Government
As previewed in this Tweet from earlier this week, WDEL reports that NCCo PD Chief Elmer Setting doesn’t pay rent at the house he lives in on Lisa Dean Mosley’s property. I could have sworn I read that here at DL awhile ago, but I can’t find it. Still — John Flaherty speaks for me […]
In Which We Find Tom Gordon Telling You Not to Believe Your Lyin’ Eyes
Anyone surprised that Gordon is denying any allegations or corruption or mismanagement? Or that he is blaming Grimaldi? Saying that one of the parties who is actually heard on the tape is “misinformed”.
Tales of Corruption from Tom Gordon’s NCC — Coverups, Double Dealing and GA Senators
First, go look at WDEL’s story on this. The story as currently released alleges that an employee of the county (and husband of Bethany Hall-Long) took confidential records of low-income housing residents in order to run his own personal phone bank for his wife.
A confidential source implicated Hall-Long’s husband, Dana Long, in allegedly using his position as a Section 8 housing property inspector–a contract position within New Castle County government–to lobby for his wife’s state Senate re-election bid.
A confidential source told WDEL that Long took the county’s protected contact list of low-income housing residents and cold-called them–on his own time–urging residents in his district to vote for his wife when she faced Republican John Marino in her 2014 re-election bid.
Hillary Clinton Watch Over… Beau Biden Watch Begins
Well, we finally know that Hillary Clinton is running for President. Now we need to find out if Beau Biden is running for Governor. It is the central question in Delaware politics, and really, no one knows the exact answer to it, just like no one really knows what medical condition the former Attorney General suffered back in August 2013. But we finally got some Beau Biden news on Friday that may shed some light on some answers.
Game of Thrones, Episode One: Rules of the Game and the Governor.
The rumblings have started. The game of musical chairs begins as potential candidates start eyeing a particular chair and then nervously eye each other while the music plays.
So in working through this, let’s make some assumptions:
1. Governor Markell will not be a candidate for any of these upcoming races. This is because I assume, no matter who wins the Presidential election, Markell will be in the Cabinet. He is the perfect Democrat a Republican President would chose for Secretary of Education or Secretary of Commerce, and I can see President Hillary Clinton likewise tapping him for Commerce, Education or Treasury.
2. Treasurer Ken Simpler is not running for Governor, but for reelection in 2018.
3. In the same vein, and much to my personal chagrin, Attorney General Matt Denn will not be running for Governor either, but will run for reelection in 2018. For you see, Mr. Denn is the most progressive statewide official and has been since his arrival as Insurance Commissioner back in 2004. But, and this goes for Simpler too, two years on the job is not enough of a platform to run for a new one. Beau Biden recognized this back in 2010, back when he had been on the job of AG for 4 years, but spent 18 months of that in Iraq. And it is a shame too, since that was likely his last chance at higher office. But I digress. For Denn, and I am sure he is aware of this, a run for Governor so soon after a switch of office to AG from LG, coupled with his history of jumping from IC to LG after one term, an uncomfortable reputation might emerge.
4. Insurance Commissioner Stewart and Auditor Wagner will not leave their respective jobs voluntarily until they die. They will not retire. And they cannot be defeated in a primary. For Wagner, having an elected statewide Republican is still a rare enough thing that I am not sure another Republican can be found to challenge him. For Stewart, the only way she can be defeated is if you limit her primary challengers to 1. If she has more than 1 primary challenger, her 32% inexplicable base support in the party will allow her to win. But that will never happen because Tom Gordon and Dennis Williams will step again with their City-County-Stewart unholy tripartite alliance and save him with one or more primary challengers.
5. Beau Biden will not run for any office in 2016. His announcement that he was foregoing a 2014 reelection race and would instead run for Governor in 2016 was a smokescreen, a place-holding statement to preserve his political capital and position in the Party and politics should his health and/or prognosis improve. It was a wise, smart move on that front. But it is not our reality. Beau Biden is not running for Governor, or any office. And I am not going to pretend that he is. If he starts making public appearances, if he starts speaking at these public appearances, and if he releases information as to his health scare, treatment and prognosis, then I will take him seriously as a potential candidate.
6. Tom Carper has a one more election cycle in him before he turns into Bill Roth and someone Carpers him. And I say that wanting Carper to retire to the Florida beach with Castle with every fiber of my being.
So, having said all that, let’s look at who are the candidates for Governor first, because the candidates for this highest office will determine, in a trickle down that actually works, the candidates for the other offices.
Tom Gordon Calls Take Backs on Secrecy for Denmark Trips
Over the weekend, the Gordon Administration started releasing some details in the planned trip to Denmark for a library tour by the Community Services Manager and an Administrative Librarian. The NJ article now has some estimates of the cost of the trip for two people and the planned dates of travel. There’s also some estimates of the costs of previous trips. The NJ is still pursuing its FOIA request for this data. Still — it’s all so much bull:
Some council members said they had never been briefed on the project. When they were finally given details last week, the Denmark trip was left out of the presentation. One council member happened to ask about it because he had heard a rumor.
“They all knew the principle behind this, which was to design the best library in the country,” Gordon said of council. “To attack that, it looks like we’re fighting and hurts our ability to attract more partners.”
Tom Gordon Blames the News Journal for His Own Lack of Transparency
This week’s unnecessary controversy is over a planned trip to Denmark (!) by Community Services Manager, Sophia Hanson, and an unnamed other county employee to inspect a library that apparently they think is a model for what they want to do with the planned library across the street (sort of) from Chris Bullock’s church on Rt 9. County Council did not know of this trip until Councilman George Smiley asked about it after a presentation on this library this week. It isn’t clear that any one knows much more about this trip, but Adam Taylor of the NJ asked for more detail and was pretty much told that the County won’t release more information on this because the County Executive thinks that the NJ is just going to do a hit piece:
County spokesman Tony Prado said Friday that Gordon administration officials would not talk about the trip. They wouldn’t say who was going, when the trip is scheduled to take place, how much it will cost, whose idea it was, or why it is necessary to visit a library in Denmark.
“The executive is concerned this is going to be a negative story and he doesn’t want to comment,” Prado said. “This has been a project that is near and dear to his heart, and the executive feels like this is going to be a hit piece, so he would just rather not comment.”
More on the War on Women in NCCo County Council
The NJ picks up on our question about the NAACP bullying Councilwoman Lisa Diller and writes about the War on Women that Councilwoman Diller believes is being waged by Tom Gordon on the women in NCCo County Council. This is a good article by Adam Taylor, that adds some interesting history of NCCo folks flying off of the handle…
Why is the Delaware NAACP Bullying Councilwoman Lisa Diller?
This past Tuesday, the NCCo County Council met for usual business, but ended with an extraordinary bit of public commentary directing actual threats at Councilwoman Lisa Diller. We talked about the original incident here. But the NAACP President, Richard Smith, read a letter into the record that you can hear via the County’s audio of the meeting. The full meeting is about 30 minutes long, but if you go to about the 26 minute mark you can hear from Mr. Smith and Mr. Roosevelt Nichols (not sure I heard the name correctly) who read the letter sent to Ms. Diller.
The letter recommends that Ms. Diller take Diversity Training and Anger Management Training. It also says that “…we will monitor your future County Council behavior from now on.” (my transcription of the audio). Mr. Smith then takes the mike to also recommend Diversity Training and ask for a meeting with Ms. Diller. And if that doesn’t happen, “We’ll do what we have to do — you can take that any way you want to.” ‘Refuse to take the black community for granted” and he’d have 14-18 NAACP states here to protest or something.
Got that? The Delaware NAACP suits up in County Council to defend the indefensible behavior of Bernard Pepukayi — that behavior being an inept dodge of a valid request from a Council Member for a briefing on a the status of an appeal of a recent court decision in the Pike Creek Golf Course case.
How Rockwood Mansion will cost you money, thanks to Tom Gordon
We don’t normally get generous offers to fix country property like we have with Rockwood Mansion, so for Tom Gordon and his goons to fight it because of some perceived threat to organized labor is beyond ridiculous.
So… Tom Gordon And Dennis P. Williams Wrote A Letter
I’m still mulling over this letter, and while I’m not sure exactly where this is headed, I am thrilled that someone is finally pointing out the problems with our city schools. The letter is inside, and as usual Kilroy has more thoughts here and here.
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